Legal cultures are described as being temporary outcomes of interactions and occur pursuant to a challenge and response
paradigm
In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field.
Etymology
''Paradigm'' comes f ...
. Analyses of core legal paradigms shape the characteristics of individual and distinctive legal cultures.
"Comparative legal cultures are examined by a field of scholarship, which is situated at the line bordering
comparative law
Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law (legal systems) of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal "systems" (or "families") in existence in the world, including the ...
and historical
jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...
."
Lawrence M. Friedman's definition of legal culture is that it is "the network of values and attitudes relating to law, which determines when and why and where people turn to law or government, or turn away".
Legal cultures can be examined by reference to fundamentally different legal systems. However, such cultures can also be differentiated between systems with a shared history and basis which are now otherwise influenced by factors that encourage cultural change. Students learn about legal culture in order to better understand how the law works in society. This can be seen as the study of Law and Society. These studies are available at schools such as Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Western vs non-Western legal culture
Western legal culture is unified in the systematic reliance on legal constructs. Such constructs include
corporations
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
,
contracts
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...
,
estates, rights and powers. These concepts are not only nonexistent in primitive or traditional legal systems but they can also be predominately incapable of expression in those language systems which form the basis of such legal cultures.
[J.C. Smith (1968) 'The Unique Nature of the Concepts of Western Law' The Canadian Bar Review (46: 2 pp. 191-225) in Csaba Varga (ed) (1992) Comparative Legal Cultures (Dartmouth: England).]
As a general proposition, the concept of legal culture depends on
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
and
symbols
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
and any attempt to analyze non-western legal systems in terms of categories of modern western law can result in distortion attributable to differences in language.
So while legal constructs are unique to classical Roman, modern civil and common law cultures, legal concepts or primitive and archaic law get their meaning from sensed experience based on facts as opposed to theory or abstract. Legal culture therefore in the former group is influenced by academics, learned members of the profession and historically, philosophers. The latter group's culture is harnessed by beliefs, values and religion at a foundational level.
Historical studies of European 'cultures of law' have focused on the problem of explaining the context in which law operates, and how to understand the expectations and perceptions of law, justice and authority among the members of different groups who made use of legal norms, tools and fora.
Traditional law in Africa is based on natural justice and lacks abstract concepts. This is characteristic of cultures that have an absence of written language which is necessary to elaborate concepts into theory.
[Max Gluckman (1964) 'Natural Justice in Africa' Natural Law Forum vol: 9 (pp. 25-44) in Csaba Varga (ed) (1992) Comparative Legal Cultures (Dartmouth: England).] The doctrines of traditional
African law are based on social considerations whereby parties to disputes seek not declarations of right or wrong but rather they seek restitution of social relationships.
The trier of fact and law adjudicates between closely related people from communities as opposed to strangers in commerce. Judgments stress the importance of living together in generous, loving kindness, mutual helpfulness and reciprocity. Evidence suggests that 'African law demonstrates that all men, because they live in society, have some theory of rules of justice which they believe arise from reason itself;
nd Gluckman's evidencesuggests that Africans may well have formulated, in embryonic form at least, a theory of natural justice coming from human kindness itself.'
The
Islamic legal system exemplifies law as part of a larger culture where the concepts of knowledge, right and human nature play a central role. A case study by
Lawrence Rosen explains the anthropological, procedural and
judicial discretion Judicial discretion is the power of the judiciary to make some legal decisions according to their discretion. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the ability of judges to exercise discretion is an aspect of judicial independence. Where ...
aspects of bringing a case to court in
Sefrou
Sefrou is a city in central Morocco situated in the Fès-Meknès region. It recorded a population of 79,887 in the 2014 Moroccan census, up from 63,872 in the 2004 census.
Sefrou is known for its historical Jewish population, and its annual cherry ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
.
[Lawrence Rosen (1989) The Anthropology of Justice: Law as Culture in Islamic Society (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge).] The case study makes explicit those fundamentals in Islamic society that shape Islamic legal culture and differentiate this from western legal cultures.
Rigid procedural rules and strict court room decorum or etiquette which is entrenched in western legal cultures clears the way for a more natural process of dispute resolution.
In Morocco, close attention is paid to social origins, connections and identity where these concepts influence a
qadi
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
's (judge) judicial interrogation and discretion.
While the systems of law found in the western world consist of conceptualisation and implementation that mimic the extrajudicial world only slightly, in the Islamic courts of Morocco, the culture of law being propounded reflects the overall culture of its people.
This is attributable to the goals of law in Islamic society, which is not to hold state or religious power as supreme or to develop an exacting body of legal doctrine, but to restore relationships and then facilitate the resolution of disputes independently of rigid
precedent
A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...
.
Western comparisons
The traditional focus between
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
culture and
civil law culture has been highlighted by court room procedure, whereby the former nurtures an
adversarial environment and the latter an
inquisitorial
An inquisitorial system is a legal system in which the court, or a part of the court, is actively involved in investigating the facts of the case. This is distinct from an adversarial system, in which the role of the court is primarily that of an ...
one. Indeed no system of court procedure can ever be purely adversarial or purely inquisitorial.
In fact
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, which subscribes to a civil legal system, historically gave the
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
a passive role and left the parties to engage in an accusatorial manner. Nonetheless the common law culture predominately consists of oral arguments where legal representors steer the case in search of
justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
and reinforcement of rights.
The use of a
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartiality, impartial verdict (a Question of fact, finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty o ...
in the common law as a judge of fact is unique when compared to civil law systems. The Jury are triers of fact in both
civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility
*Civil action, or lawsuit
* Civil affairs
*Civil and political rights
*Civil disobedience
*Civil engineering
*Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism
*Civilian, someone not a membe ...
and
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
cases and this reflects a particular culture of law; namely the direct involvement of society in the
legal framework
A legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, procedural steps, or test, often established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be determined in a given legal case. A doctrine comes about when a judge makes a ruling ...
. In France a judge's role as trier of law and fact is merely as an administrator without creating binding
legal principle
A legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, procedural steps, or test, often established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be determined in a given legal case. A doctrine comes about when a judge makes a ruling ...
. Hence the civil law culture is more rational, orderly, authoritative and
paternalistic
Paternalism is action that limits a person's or group's liberty or autonomy and is intended to promote their own good. Paternalism can also imply that the behavior is against or regardless of the will of a person, or also that the behavior expres ...
.
Common law has a culture of judicial inventiveness and even flexibility. Enunciation of principle is not forever paramount but indeed a continuing flow of cases and statutes add to the ebb and flow of the law, whereby 'case law represented the modern man's realisation of his own limitations.' Further differences include where a civilian
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
speaks in terms of the law of nature while the common lawyer speaks to reason. It follows that the culture of these legal systems has been moulded by perceptions of justice and the means available to attain it.
Common law comparisons
Legal culture can differ between countries despite their conformity to a similar if not identical legal system. Both the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
possess common law systems of law and yet each country embodies a distinctive legal culture. This has been attributable by contrasting both the institutions within the legal system and characteristics of the profession (
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
s,
barristers
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
and
solicitors
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
).
[Richard A. Posner (1996) ''Law and Legal Theory in England and America'' (Clarendon Press: Oxford).]
According to
Posner during 1996 there was about 15 times more American judges than English judges but only about 10 times more American lawyers than English lawyers. Posner suggests that English judges have more prestige than American judges and a related point is that the ratio of judges to lawyers is lower in England than the United States.
The consequence of this is that the English common law system, as opposed to the American legal system, displays a legal culture of greater prestige and
elitism
Elitism is the belief or notion that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people perceived as having an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, power, notability, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be constructi ...
not only in the judiciary but also those who are candidates for the
judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
.
In England, and other
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
jurisdictions, barristers are apt candidates for judicial nomination. The reasons for this stem from the common law systems which have a culture to encourage, harness and capture high quality intellect and experience within a concentrated portion of non-judicial officers of the legal profession known as barristers (which includes and accounts for their subsequent appointments to higher ranking
queens counsel and
senior counsel
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...
).
Barristers are engaged upon a solicitor's
brief
Brief, briefs, or briefing may refer to:
Documents
* A letter
* A briefing note
* Papal brief, a papal letter less formal than a bull, sealed with the pope's signet ring or stamped with the device borne on this ring
* Design brief, a type of ed ...
instead of direct engagement with the client. This insulation avoids lay persons being taken advantage of by unscrupulous lawyers which is evidently "a big problem in the United States, where incompetent lawyers, and known to be such both by judges and by other lawyers, often wow naïve clients."
The cost of pursuing
litigation
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
influences the culture of each legal system in terms of what society perceives as the net benefit gained from the court and the profession. To litigate similar cases in England and the United States would cost approximately the same; however English courts are not as generous as their American counterparts in awarding
damages
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
, especially
punitive damages
Punitive damages, or exemplary damages, are damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. ...
.
Therefore the net expected benefit of litigation being greater in the United States encourages a legal culture that is more litigious in nature than England.
National character is inherent in the legal institutions of the
courts
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
and
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, their formation and their output in terms of
legislation
Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...
or
judgments
Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...
. For example it has been said that many factors have contributed to the litigiousness of the United States, including: the rights afforded to the people, a written
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
, immigrant origins of its population, racial and ethnic heterogeneity and the wealth and spoils of its population.
To this end
national character and
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
influence current legal culture.
Chinese legal culture
The legal culture of
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, as well as its social and economic culture, continues to undergo dramatic change since the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
's reforms of 1978. Transformation has occurred by legal modernisation whereby a rule of law has been suggested to replace the rule of man. The latter is a characteristic of the traditional rural Chinese society where unwritten rules, personal relationships and trust govern citizens' legal relationships; analogous to
gemeinschaft
''Gemeinschaft'' () and ''Gesellschaft'' (), generally translated as "community and society", are categories which were used by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies in order to categorize social relationships into two types. The Gesellschaft ...
. In the modern society of China, institutional, customary and legal reform (a rule of law that embodies universal rules uniformly enforced by a centralised and bureaucratic state) is necessary to govern legal relations; analogous to
gesellschaft
''Gemeinschaft'' () and ''Gesellschaft'' (), generally translated as "community and society", are categories which were used by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies in order to categorize social relationships into two types. The Gesellschaft ...
.
Direct
transplants
Transplant or Transplantation may refer to:
Sciences
*Transplanting a plant from one location to another
*Organ transplantation, moving an organ from one body to another
*Transplant thought experiment, an experiment similar to Trolley problem
*Tra ...
of
western legal systems or culture may not provide an adequate rule of law where the life of ordinary Chinese may be marginalised in favour of legal elite who use legal instruments for self-promotion. Furthermore, implanting western legal norms disregards the local culture and relations; thus potentially destroying significant cultural bonds and relationships in the rural community. The traditional
rural Chinese
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...
legal culture which is premised on personal and informal relations faces erosion unless
legal pluralism
Legal pluralism is the existence of multiple legal systems within one society and/or geographical area. Plural legal systems are particularly prevalent in former colonies, where the law of a former colonial authority may exist alongside more tradi ...
is promoted.
A top down approach in analysing the legal culture of China suggests that both under
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...
and
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...
, China is "a country under rule by law, not rule of law."
[Jianfu Chen "To Have the Cake and Eat it too? China and the Rule of Law" (pp. 250-272) in Guenther Doeker-Mach and Klaus A. Ziegert (Eds.) (2004) ''Law, Legal Culture and Politics in the Twenty First Century'' (Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart).] Evidence comes from post Mao-China, where law is seen as necessary for institutionalising and generalising ad hoc policies for
economic reform
Microeconomic reform (or often just economic reform) comprises policies directed to achieve improvements in economic efficiency, either by eliminating or reducing distortions in individual sectors of the economy or by reforming economy-wide polici ...
and as maintaining party leadership.
Further problems with the Chinese legal culture include a piecemeal approach to law making with an imbalance between
law and policy; denials of private law; neglect towards
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
and individual liberties; and poor enforcement of laws.
According to Chen, the consensus in China among scholars is that the lack of
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
and
rule of law
The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...
are interdependent concepts whereby "the rule of law is legitimate only if it is the product of democratic government." This is where one could look at Taiwan (known officially as the Republic of China) which is a unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic. Taiwan is characterized as a representative democracy. Despite its democratic values underpinned by a constitution based on the German civil law it does not receive wide recognition as a state separate from the People's Republic of China.
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system originating in mainland Europe and adopted in much of the world. The civil law system is intellectualized within the framework of Roman law, and with core principles codified into a referable system, which serves as t ...
What is evident with the People's Republic of China experience is that legal culture is susceptible to change in pursuance to
socio-economic
Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local ...
and
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
forces. While such a change could be beneficial for portions of the society and
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
, traditional and established cultural methods face extinction.
See also
*
Culture of honor vs. culture of law
*
Incarceration in the United States
Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceratio ...
*
Legal anthropology
Legal anthropology, also known as the anthropology of laws, is a sub-discipline of anthropology follows inter diciplinary approach which specializes in "the cross-cultural study of social ordering". The questions that Legal Anthropologists seek ...
*
Prison–industrial complex
The prison-industrial complex (PIC) is a term, coined after the " military-industrial complex" of the 1950s, used by scholars and activists to describe the relationship between a government and the various businesses that benefit from institutio ...
*
Sociology of law
The sociology of law (legal sociology, or law and society) is often described as a sub-discipline of sociology or an interdisciplinary approach within legal studies. Some see sociology of law as belonging "necessarily" to the field of sociology, ...
*
Western law
Western law comprises the legal traditions of Western culture, with roots in Roman law and canon law. As Western culture shares a Graeco-Roman Classical and Renaissance cultural influence, so do its legal systems.
History
The rediscovery of th ...
*
Byzantine law
Byzantine law was essentially a continuation of Roman law with increased Orthodox Christian and Hellenistic influence. Most sources define ''Byzantine law'' as the Roman legal traditions starting after the reign of Justinian I in the 6th century ...
References
*Albert H. Y. Chen 'Socio-legal Thought and Legal Modernization in Contemporary China: A Case Study of the Jurisprudence of Zhu Suli' (pp. 227–249) in Guenther Doeker-Mach and Klaus A. Ziegert (Eds.) (2004) Law, Legal Culture and Politics in the Twenty First Century (Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart).
* Banakar, Reza, "The Politics of Legal Cultures" in Retfærd: The Nordic Journal of Law and Justice (2008). An e-copy is available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1323371
* Banakar, Reza, "Power, Culture and Method in Comparative Law" in International Journal of Law in Context, 2009 . An e-copy is available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1345100
* Cotterrell, Roger (2006) Law, Culture and Society: Legal Ideas in the Mirror of Social Theory. Aldershot: Ashgate.
* Cotterrell, Roger (2008) 'Comparative Law and Legal Culture' in Mathias Reimann and Reinhard Zimmermann (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Legrand, Pierre (1996) 'European Legal Systems Are Not Converging' in International and Comparative Law 45:52.
* Legrand, Pierre (1997) 'Against a European Civil Code' in Modern Law Review 60: 44.
* Legrand, Pierre and Munday, Roderick (2003) (eds.) Comparative Legal Studies: Traditions and Transitions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Legrand, Pierre (2003) 'The Same and the Different' in Legrand, Pierre and Munday, Roderick (eds.) Comparative Legal Studies: Traditions and Transitions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 240–311.
* Menski, Werner (2006) Comparative Law in a Global Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1st edition 2000.
* Monateri, Pier Giuseppe (2000) 'Black Gaius. A Quest for the Multicultural Origins of the Western Legal Tradition' in Hastings Law Journal 51: 479 -555.
* Nelken, David (2000) (ed.) Contrasting Criminal Justice: Getting from here to there. Aldershot: Ashgate/Dartmouth.
* Nelken, David (2004) 'Using the Concept of Legal Culture' in Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 29: 1–28.
* Nelken, David (2007) 'Culture, Legal' in Clark, David S. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Law and Society: American and Global Perspectives. London: Sage, 369–374.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legal Culture
Culture
Sociology of law
Comparative law
Political anthropology